Claim: A video circulating widely on social media claims to show the final moments of Indian naval officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal and his wife before Narwal was killed in the Pahalgam attack on 23 April.
Fact: The video does not feature Lieutenant Vinay Narwal and his wife. It actually shows another couple, Ashish Sehrawat and Yashika Sharma, who confirmed the fact in an Instagram post on 24 April.
Following the attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, a video circulated widely on social media with various captions claiming it showed the final moments of Indian naval officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, dancing with his wife against the backdrop of the mountains.
Pahalgam attack
On 23 April 2025, a militant attack in Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Indian-administered Kashmir, resulted in the deaths of 26 tourists and injuries to 17 others. Initially, several news outlets reported that The Resistance Front (TRF), which is considered an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the attack. The militants targeted visitors in the remote Baisaran valley. All those killed were men. Among the victims were Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, an Indian navy officer, Manish Ranjan, an Intelligence Bureau employee, and banker Shailesh Kathaliya. In response, Indian authorities launched a large-scale manhunt.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry responded to the attack by expressing concern at the loss of lives. The Indian government accused Islamabad of supporting cross-border terrorism. Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif denied these accusations and claimed that it is India, which has interfered with Pakistan’s internal affairs. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar claimed that, “India has not given any evidence. They have not shown any maturity in their response,” and that the response was “non-serious”.
After the attack, India closed a key land border with Pakistan, suspended the Indus Waters Treaty and barred Pakistan’s citizens from entering under a visa exemption scheme. In a broadcast, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to take the harshest response against the perpetrators of the attack.
In the following days, Pakistan called for a neutral investigation and expressed willingness to cooperate, while emphasising its commitment to peace and sovereignty. In addition, cross-border firing resumed after years of calm. Meanwhile, Indian forces demolished homes of suspected militants, affecting families and sparking local resentment.
On 26 April, TRF distanced itself from the attack, claiming that a social media post taking responsibility was the result of a “coordinated cyber intrusion.” It asserted that any attribution of the attack to the group was false.
Amid growing tensions between the two countries, the US state department said it was in touch with both countries urging the two to work towards a “responsible solution.” US President Donald Trump claimed that he was close to both countries. He further added that India and Pakistan have been in conflict over Kashmir for many years and the two countries will resolve the situation one way or another. In a similar vein, China, a key player in the region, also issued a statement urging the two countries to “exercise restraint” and resolve their differences through dialogue.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first conducted a keyword search to gain more information about Lieutenant Vinay Narwal’s death. According to the BBC, 26-year-old Narwal was on his honeymoon in Pahalgam when he was killed in the attack. The deceased got married on 16 April and wanted to go to Switzerland for his honeymoon but failed to get the visa. According to NDTV, Narwal’s wife said that her husband was shot dead while they were eating bhel puri. While the news reports featured photographs and videos of the navy officer and his wife from their wedding, and his funeral, none of the news reports mentioned anything about a video capturing the deceased’s last moments.
Therefore, Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video to trace it’s origin. We traced it to Instagram users @yashika.sharma.sehrawat and @yashikashishsehrawat. On 24 April, the couple posted a video that featured screenshots of the viral video clarifying that they were alive and had received numerous calls after their clip was misused by Indian media.
The caption read: “Hey guys, we are alive and wanted to address a recent video we posted that unfortunately sparked a lot of hatred, leading us to delete it.
Sadly, the video was misused by multiple pages and news channels, falsely claiming it was the last video of late Vinay sir and his wife. Our heartfelt condolences go out to their family. We kindly request that you report any pages misusing our video, as it’s truly disheartening. It’s shocking to see even reputable news channels and pages using unverified content for views, making it challenging to trust news sources.”
In the video, Yashika Sharma appears with her husband, Ashish Sehrawat, and says they are devastated that their clip was falsely linked to the victims of the Pahalgam attack. She adds that they don’t know how the media obtained their video, but asked viewers to report the misuse and to think about how hurtful this must be for the family affected by the tragedy.
Virality
The claim was shared here, here, here, and here on Facebook. Archived here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram, it was shared here, here, here, here, here, and here. Archived here, here, here, here, here, and here.
It was shared here (archive) on X.
Conclusion: The viral video does not show the final moments of Indian naval officer Lieutenant Vinay Narwal and his wife. It featured a different couple, who confirmed they were alive and the footage was falsely linked to the Indian naval officer and his wife.
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Background image in cover photo: Reuters/Stringer
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